Human
by Ratatosks
Summary: After his parents discover his secret and disown him, Danny lives in the Ghost Zone, losing his human form and emotions. Desperate, he returns to Amity Park a year later seeking help, only to find the world is overrun by ghosts, most of the human population wiped out. Will his friends be able to restore him to his former self, or is he doomed to remain an unfeeling ghost?


"Bye, Danny, see you tomorrow at school!"

Sam and Tucker grinned and waved as the raven-haired boy shut the door behind him and walked towards the neon Fenton Works sign that stood out in the otherwise dark town. It had been an unusually ordinary day; there had been zero paranormal occurrences, and for once, Danny didn't have to think about ghost hunting and his burden of being the town hero. It was nice.

But of course, Amity Park wasn't an ordinary town. Something strange was bound to happen, whether Danny wanted it to or not.

All of a sudden, a dense blue fog passed through Danny's pale lips, distorting as it floated into the air. "Great," he muttered. He ducked into a small space between two buildings, whispered to himself "Going ghost," and closed his eyes, awakening his ghost half.

The familiar icy feeling exploded inside of him, freezing over his waist and then washing over the rest of his body. His organs stopped working, blood ceasing to flow so they could be replaced with new ectoplasmic energy. The green substance raced through his veins, tingling at his fingertips at toes, begging to be unleashed. Danny's eyes opened back up, now burning a fierce green.

At once, he took off into the sky, legs fusing into a wispy tail that rippled behind him. The ghost that he met was weak, no doubt: a green octopus-like creature with a nasty expression.

_At least this fight will be over with soon enough. I want to go home._

It was easy. Too easy. And a little boring, Danny had to admit. The thing was too simple-minded to comprehend banter, and in a few ectoblasts, it was knocked unconscious.

Danny smiled to himself as he unscrewed the cap of the Fenton Thermos, remembering when he first started fighting ghosts and had a lot more difficulty beating those things. To himself, he murmured, "I've definitely impro-"

The thermos fell from his grasp, speeding to the ground and smashing into a hundred pieces. A sudden rip of electricity shot up Danny's spine, crackling through each cell in his body and completely paralyzing him. He tried to let out a cry of pain, but no noise would escape his lips. He could only helplessly watch the starry sky draw further and further away as he, too, plummeted to the ground.

Danny hit the pavement with a loud crack, wanting to whimper out, but again, falling mute. His entire body had become numb with shock; it just felt unimaginably heavy, as if he was made of rocks.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't our friend the ghost boy."

Danny could recognize that voice anywhere, but instead of the nurturing, motherly tone it usually held, it was cold and devoid.

Jack and Maddie Fenton stared down at him, eyes hard and unmoving.

"We've been waiting so long to have a chat with you, and it looks like you're not too preoccupied at the moment, hm? How about you join us at our house for a bit so we can learn a little more about you?"

All Danny could do was blink in response. He knew what contraptions his parents carried down there – how they boasted they would be able to 'rip Phantom apart molecule by molecule.' He knew how badly they wanted to capture and destroy Phantom, convinced he was a menace to the town, regardless of what he had done to help; in their eyes, all ghosts were bad. No exceptions.

_What's going to happen to me? _Danny didn't want to think about it.

"No need to be scared, Phantom," Jack began, his natural demeanor making him slightly less frightening than Maddie, "As long as you cooperate."

Danny squeezed his eyes shut as they threw some sort of net over him. He was powerless, completely at their mercy, and no one was there to save him.

Blackness clouded his mind, trying to pull him under, and this time, Danny embraced unconsciousness. He clutched onto it like a lifeline and didn't dare let go, praying it would protect him from the horrors to unfold.

* * *

Danny woke up screaming. He was being shocked again, electricity laced with the very ectoplasm that composed his body, and it was even worse than it had been before. Tears stinging the corners of his eyes, he thrashed about as best he could, finding his hands and feet were secured to the corners of a steel table.

Danny's ghost form had granted him a duller sense of touch. Normally, pain felt detached, as if his soul and body were separate, and his injuries were only partially registered. But this – this was different. This was a blinding sort of pain – something he had never experienced before. It made him shriek and writhe and want to die right there on the spot. _What have I done to deserve this?_

"Good, you're awake."

Danny turned his head to find Maddie seated next to him in front of a computer. He couldn't think properly. All he could hear was whispers in his head. Danny's human half was begging him to tell them the truth. Reveal that he was their son because they would accept and love him no matter what. "They would never hurt their own son!" Fenton cried.

Danny couldn't bring himself to do it. Seeing these ruthless sides of his parents, he wasn't so sure. There was no trace of their goofiness or lovingness, only calculating scientists who wanted to extract revenge on the ghost boy.

"No good, again," Jack said aloud. He was standing over a machine, squinting over a piece of paper it had just produced.

Maddie turned back around to face Danny, and in an unsettling tone, said, "Maybe you can help us. You must know why your DNA tests are coming out as nonsense data." Jack passed her the piece of paper which she held in Danny's face. Unlike the test results he had seen his parents run on ghosts before, these results were completely incoherent.

Danny felt sick. Why did they have to scan his DNA? Now they were closer than ever to discovering his secret.

"Um, maybe it's because my DNA is more like ectoplasmic compositions than human DNA?" he feebly offered.

"Wrong answer," Maddie responded, voice steely. "If that was the case, this test wouldn't have worked on every other ghost we've tried it on. What do you take us for, fools?"

"That's all I know!" he blurted, but something in his expression gave him away.

"Lies." Maddie pressed a button, and the searing pain ripped through him again. Danny let out another blood-curdling scream, spine contracting and fists pounding the table in agony. It was like being shocked in the portal all over again.

"Just please let me go," Danny whimpered. "I didn't do anything to hurt you. Please, oh god, let me go."

They blatantly ignored his pleas. "That's not all you know."

Danny didn't reply. He just kept begging for them to set him free. Maddie stood over him and grabbed a scalpel from the table, without warning pressing it to his stomach. It sliced through his flesh with ease, as if it were butter, and green blood seeped out onto the wound, staining his hazmat suit.

"I don't want to make this difficult. Would you rather me dissect you to see what makes you tick?"

"No, please no. I just can't tell you about my DNA."

The knife drove further in, and this time Danny couldn't hold back another shriek. "C'mon ghost boy, I thought you were stronger than that," she sneered. "If you're so legendary, prove it to me."

Danny opened his mouth to respond, but to his horror, two white rings erupted and spread over his body, returning all warmth and humanness. His hazmat suit was replaced with jeans and a T-shirt, white hair now black and matted to his forehead with sweat, green eyes blue and terrified. Red blood began to pool onto his shirt, washing over the green.

An eerie silence settled in the room. Danny swore he could hear his skin sizzling.

"Daniel Fenton," his father whispered. "You're the ghost boy?"

Danny, unsure of what to do, weakly nodded in response.

"You're a monster?"

The shackles released his wrists, and Danny, shaking, sat himself up, staring at his two appalled, infuriated parents.

"You've been this – this _abomination_ all this time?"

"No! It was an accident in the portal. I didn't want for this to – I just wanted to help people with the powers that I got."

"Help people?" Jack roared. "All you've done is terrorize Amity Park! Remember the time you overshadowed the mayor? How you robbed everybody of their Christmas Presents? You're just a ghost punk wreaking havoc on everyone's lives. You're no son of mine."

Danny couldn't even register what Jack was saying to him. No, he had always told himself this would never happen. How could they reject their own son? How could they have everything about Phantom so terribly wrong?

"That wasn't me." Danny's voice was hoarse and trembling. "I was overshadowed. People were impersonating me and framing me for things I didn't do."

"How can I take your word for that, you genetic freak?" Maddie sneered. "People in this town may blindly worship you, but I can see through that pathetic façade. No ghost has a speck of good in him, half or full."

"But-"

"You know what? Just…get out."

"…W- What?"

"You heard me. Get the hell out of here! I'm not harboring some ectoplasmic monster under my roof, not in a million years. I don't know who you are anymore, and I don't want to have anything to do with you."

_This has to be a nightmare. This has to be a terrible nightmare and I'll wake up soon. _

"I hate you."

Danny sauntered over to the ghost portal, smashed the 'on' switch, and gave one last hard look at the two he no longer called his parents. A small puddle of blood was beginning to form beneath his feet.

"I'm going to go live with all the monsters like me."

And with that, Danny Fenton disappeared into the green swirling mist.

* * *

**This _Danny Phantom_ universe should be viewed more as an "if _Danny Phantom_ was real" scenario, and not the same way the cartoon is viewed. Just keep in mind that from here on out, it's not going to be super corny like the show, and certain situations this fanfic deals with will be a bit more mature than situations presented for the show's target audience.**

**Regardless, I hope you enjoyed this darker spin on _Danny Phantom _and stay tuned for more! **


End file.
